Stennis makes its way back to Bremerton

This photo of the Stennis on its way to its homeport at PSNS was submitted by reader Mike Redd on Friday morning.

BREMERTON - The USS Stennis returned to its home port in Bremerton Friday, completing a seven-month deployment in which the aircraft carrier launched the last Navy air mission over Iraq and more than 1,000 flights over Afghanistan

A spokeswoman, Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Fields, says the final Iraq flight on Dec. 18 was a surveillance mission in support of Iraqi forces as U.S. forces withdrew.

In January, the Stennis brig held 15 pirates who had seized an Iranian fishing boat in the northern Arabian Sea.

The carrier unloaded its air wing earlier in the week at San Diego, including a Prowler squadron, VAQ 133 for Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. The Stennis carried more than 500 family members and friends of the crew on a Tiger cruise to Puget Sound.

Kitsap Sun will continue to update this story with photos as the reunions with family members begin. Send your photos to sunnews@kitsapsun.com.